INFO: BizTalk Messaging Service Enters a Paused State After Unexpected Database Failure or Network Problem (321877)

SUMMARY

• After the initial loss of connectivity, the BizTalk Messaging Service enters a "paused" state for one minute, and then it tries to restart itself.
• If the first restart attempt fails, the BizTalk Messaging Service enters a paused state for twice as long as it did previously (two minutes in this case) before it tries to restart. If subsequent attempts to restart fail, BizTalk continues to double the length of time during which it is in a paused state up to a maximum time of one hour. The BizTalk Messaging Service continues to cycle between pausing and trying to restart until it successfully restarts.
  
  You can configure the maximum pause state interval through the registry entry that is listed in the "More Information" section in this article.

• While the BizTalk Messaging Service is paused, it does not engage in any message processing but it does accept shutdown messages, so you can manually stop and start the BizTalk Messaging Service while it is in a paused state. To determine if the BizTalk Messaging Service is in a paused state, check the status of the BizTalk Messaging Service from the Service Control Manager. To access Service Control Manager, open the Administrative Tools folder and then double-click Services.
• If at any point the BizTalk Messaging Service successfully restarts, the next time it loses connectivity the pause state interval is reset to one minute.
• The BizTalk Messaging Service does not shut down and enter a paused state during a database deadlock, a stored procedure timeout, or a DTC timeout. The BizTalk Server 2002 Messaging Service can handle these types of errors without having to restart.
• When BizTalk Server enters the paused state and tries to restart, the BizTalk Server Application log contains entries with a description of "The service is restarting" at the following intervals:

  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | Elapsed Minutes  | Interval in Minutes | Status            | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | 0                | 0                   | Trying to Restart | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | 1                | 1                   | Paused            | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | 31               | 30                  | Trying to Restart | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | 33               | 2                   | Paused            | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | 63               | 30                  | Trying to Restart | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | 67               | 4                   | Paused            | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | 97               | 30                  | Trying to Restart | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+ 
  | 105              | 8                   | Paused            | 
  +==================+=====================+===================+

  These intervals do not follow the expected intervals of 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 60 minutes because at the end of every pause interval, BizTalk Server Messaging may spend up to 30 minutes trying to restart before it enters a paused state again.
• When BizTalk Server Messaging enters a paused state, it logs the event log entry "The service is restarting." This occurs because no event log entry was created to indicate that the Messaging Service paused when this functionality was created.
• The stop, pause, and restart routine does not work correctly on "Receive only" servers. This issue is addressed in the hotfix that is described in Q321950.
• This functionality only applies to BizTalk Messaging, and not to BizTalk Orchestration.
• BizTalk Server 2000 immediately tries to restart if an unexpected database failure or network problem occurs and it cannot enter a paused state; it may attempt to restart in some cases where BizTalk Server 2002 does not.